JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Conjoined twin boys face a long road at Wolfson Children's Hospital as doctors work to separate them.
On Monday, the mother of Conner and Carter Mirabal joined doctors from Wolfson for a news conference to provide an update on the boys' condition.
On Friday, doctors performed the first of two surgeries to separate the 3-week-old twins, partially splitting the boys' intestines, which they shared at birth. They also discovered the boys have two bile ducts fused together.
"They're doing wonderful on their own," the boys' mother, Michelle Brantley, said. "They are breathing on their own again. We're holding up real good, and we're just taking it day by day."
Brantley became emotional during the news conference when she explained that she has only held the twins twice.
"It's pretty scary," she said. "It's nerve-wracking. We have faith, though."
The boys were born Dec. 12 at UF Health Jacksonville via Caesarian section at 36 weeks. They are connected at the belly, sharing a small intestine, which doctors said is very rare. The boys each have a liver, but the two organs are connected.
The boys survived Friday's surgery, which was the first of its kind in Northeast Florida.
Doctors said they want the twins to grow and get bigger before they perform what they hope will be the final surgery to separate them, which will separate their livers and bile ducts. The said they'd like to wait until the boys are 6 months to 9 months old, but they are concerned that Carter might be growing faster than Conner. If that continues, they might have to separate the boys sooner.
"Their job right now is simple: eat, grow and behave," said Dr. Daniel Robie, who represented the surgical team at Monday's news conference.
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The boys' aunt, Jasmine Mirabal, has only seen the twins once but has stood next to Brantley through the entire journey.
"At first it was very scary, touch-and-go," Jasmine Mirabal said. "But things have gotten a lot better now, and we are excited more so than scared now. We are ready for all the upcoming challenges."
Brantley and the twins' father, Bryan Mirabal, found out she was pregnant with the boys when she was four months along. A week later, they were told the boys were conjoined. All this came just eight months after Brantley gave birth to the couple's other son, Gage, who's now 13 months old.